R Acts 13:44-52
Jn 14:7-14

Perhaps we can easily identify with Philip’s request to Jesus at the beginning of this morning’s gospel reading, ‘Let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied’.

Philip speaks out of the awareness
that ultimate satisfaction is to be
found in seeing God, in being in
communion with God. We often live
with a sense of dissatisfaction.

We are aware of desires and longings in us that are not fully satisfied. There are moments when we can feel wonderfully happy, happier than we could ever have imagined, when, like Peter on the mount of transfiguration, we say, ‘it is good for us to be here’.

Sooner or later we are made aware of some unfulfilled longing in us; we sense an unease, a restlessness, a kind of emptiness that is never fully filled. That is because we are made for something which this world cannot fully give us. Saint Augustine said our hearts are restless until they rest in God.

That is why there is so much truth in Philip’s prayer to Jesus, ‘Lord, let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied’. We cannot but be struck by Jesus’ response to Philip, ‘to have seen me is to have seen the Father’.

Jesus is saying that to see him with the eyes of faith, to enter into communion with him, is to see the Father. Already here and now in this earthly life, we can begin to experience that for which we ultimately long in and through our relationship with Jesus especially in the Blessed Eucharist. Amen.

May the Souls of the faithful departed especially Ben Ssegawa Rest in Eternity. Amen….till we meet again!

Fr. John Peter | Parish Priest.